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Pat’s goal with Farm Kitchens was personal. She wanted to provide good jobs for employees and run a customer focused business. She started as owner/head cook at her first camp. She was very busy and her team served approximately ten thousand meals in the first year.
The business quickly grew from there – and by year 2, Pat was no longer cooking and instead coaching her staff. It was not unusual to find Pat teaching all night long pie/bun lessons. She is both a straight shooter and excellent mentor.  Caren Dackers, Pat’s youngest daughter, helped Pat from the beginning, learning and growing with the business to managing the paperwork and general administration.
Pat’s management experience automatically steered the business towards expansion. Ordering expanded to an almost full time job, with the coordination of groceries from a grocery consolidator and arranging trucking to remote camp locations.
At about year 4, Farm Kitchens started to consolidate groceries and deliver from a central warehouse in Leduc, Alberta. This provided flexibility and made Farm Kitchens more responsive. Sandra Gee was hired to assume the role of purchaser and Mat Lichon was hired to manage the warehouse and trucking. A state-of-the-art grocery truck was purchased and Farm Kitchens now was entirely self-operational.
In Year 7, Carla Dutton, Pat’s oldest daughter joined Farm Kitchens as operations and sales manager. This allowed Pat to reduce her work load. She continues to be actively involved in Farm Kitchens, by providing guidance to the staff in the field and assisting with staffing.
Farm Kitchens focuses on its core competency: catering and housekeeping. By sticking to what it does best, it consistently delivers quality food and service. It’s a formula that’s working: Farm Kitchens has grown to be a large independent camp catering company
serving over 300,000+ meals annually.
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